DeathwatchWorld War I horror movie set in the trenches

Plot1917, the Western Front. Amid the carnage of World War I, rookie soldier Charlie Shakespeare is forced to follow his unit over the top. Blinded by a thick fog, they happen upon a Nazi trench, where they pitch camp and slowly succumb to an evil spirit that feeds on murder and madness…

ReviewAfter the success of Billy Elliot, Jamie Bell chose this ambitious World War I ghost story as his follow-up. With its Hellraiser-style gore and Thing-like, claustrophobic setting, it couldn't have been more different from the politically-skewed, feel-good drama that made his name. Sadly, Bell might have been better off taking some time to polish his craft – what passed as youthful exuberance and freshness in Billy Elliot now looks uncomfortably like not actually being very good at acting.

Much of the problem lies with first-timer Bassett's direction. Though the production design is superb and the rest of the cast are – despite a cheesy script – mostly decent, Bassett's inexperience shows in his slack timing and poor handling of the shock scenes. His camera circles the trench with an almost wilful disregard for anything that seems to be happening at the core of each scene, and the murky cinematography makes it hard to see what's happening there, let alone care.Which is a shame, since Deathwatch is a film with a lot of potential.

Bassett has assembled some fine young actors who struggle manfully to put a bit of life into 2D characters. Fox, as the deluded, toffee-nosed captain, is especially entertaining, while Serkis goes a little too far as the Kurtz-like Quinn, puffing and bellowing like an apoplectic Keith Allen. In amongst them, Bell really is the innocent abroad, and it's hard to buy into his character and follow him to the film's queasy, quasi-pacifist punchline.

Ultimately, though, this isn't really meant to be a character piece, and the final verdict has to rest on what the film tries, and fails, to deliver. While its genre-borrowing is arguably more subtle than Danny Boyle's George Romero-heavy 28 Days Later (otherwise known as Dawn Of The Day Of The Night Of The Living Crazies), Bassett is under-equipped to do anything with it.

What Boyle may lack in originality he makes up for with technical know-how, and there's nothing here to rival his film's tense opening moments. However, these things come with time, and Bassett is young enough to learn and improve. On the basis of this, though, it won't happen overnight.

VerdictA well-designed but badly handled horror fable, scuppered by a weak leading man, bad direction and a clumsy war-is-hell script.

A cast with a lot of famous faces (oa. Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Kris Marshall) and a well-crafted claustrofobic atmosphere can`t help that only thing that stands out here is a messy script. It looks like it was subject to endless rewrites and a whole lot of indecisiviness from the films` makers.
The fundemental idea is good but the way it`s worked out leaves much to be desired. The extremely overlong ending ruin the film as well.
Mediocre at best.
5,0/10 ... More

I thought this might be quite good but it wasn't though I still watched it. The review is spot on and the film does look good. It's scuppered by one key fact though - no ghostly horror can match the actual horror of trench warfare. ... More

Deathwatch may not live up to the recent batch of recent British horror/thrillers (The Descent, Creep, Dog Soldiers) but the thing I ejoyed about it was the exetremely clever ending that explained all the strange happenings during the film. I was disapointed by the lack of gore though. ... More